Where does Hollywood Park fit into the Top 50 most important sports venues in So Cal history?

A general view from outside Hollywood Park race track in Inglewood, Calif., on June 24, 1992. (File photo)

They don’t shoot horse race tracks, do they?

Just to put them out of their misery?

History will be more humane in how it documents the high life and memorable moments of Hollywood Park, the insouciant, inscrutable Inglewood thoroughbred facility that finally has reached the point of being deemed too valuable by local business leaders for something as frivolous as public gambling on equine unpredictability.

But before we throw the synthetic dirt onto their grave proposal to make this a big, new housing complex, there’s value in trying to determine where Hollywood Park ranks among the top 50 most important sports venues in Southern California history.

Top 20, easily. Higher, anyone?

Others who’ve managed to see much more of L.A.’s sports history play out going back over the last half century-plus may have a better feel of how to put it into context.

“To put Hollywood Park in its proper place among L.A. sports venues, it would seem appropriate to look beyond its declining years to the track’s entire 75-year history,” said Rick Baedecker, the former Hollywood Park president who plans to be at today’s closing day with about 40 family members to bid it a proper adieu.

“During its first 50 years, it became the number one track in California and, for a while, the country. It was known as ‘the track of the lakes and flowers,’ a 400-acre oasis just a few miles from the ocean. But more important, it was a showcase for the sport’s greatest performers — from Seabiscuit, Citation and Swaps to Pincay, McCarron and Shoemaker, perhaps the greatest jockey of all-time. And L.A. sports fans embraced it — 80,000 came out for a tote bag giveaway in 1980, when a crowd of 30,000 was the norm — for a Wednesday afternoon.

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“Hollywood Park may be top 20. But there was a time when it was second to none.”

David Simon, the president of the L.A. Sports Council, said there’s justification in including “Hollywood” in its name even despite its locale. Warner Brothers’ Harry Warner was the first chairman of the park’s board of directors. Another founding board member was Al Jolson. Bing Crosby and Lucille Ball were horse owners and regulars at the track in the 1950s.

“Today’s celebrities have gravitated to other sports,” Simon said, “but in its prime Hollywood Park had a glamorous aura befitting its name.”

Rich Perelman, author of “Unforgettable: The 100 Greatest Moments in Los Angeles Sports History,” picks the park at No. 16 on his own Top 50 list.

“In a time when there were fewer teams, less television and leisure was less about wearing a team jersey and screaming and more about being social, Hollywood Park was an oasis of class that was accessible to just about everyone,” said Perelman, a UCLA and Loyola Law School grad who has been immersed in event consulting, marketing and communications. He even acted as the 1984 Summer Olympics press chief.

“It tried to adapt as the community’s tastes changed, but it was never going to be Santa Anita. It will be remembered in the future more fondly than it was in life, as is the case for so many of the pleasure palaces we have lost. But it was fun while it lasted.”

It’s just as fun to create this Top 50 list, based on historic relevance, aura and mystique to the area over the years.

If you’ll bear with us, we’d lay it out this way:

THE TOP 10:

1. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: Aside from some unpopular opinion, the place has managed to stay classic, and classy, as the center piece to two Summer Olympics (1932, ’84), the first Super Bowl (’67), the Dodgers’ 1959 World Series and the home of USC football since its opening in 1923 (and UCLA’s home from 1928-81). It also gave shelter to the first major pro sports franchise in L.A. when the NFL’s Rams moved here from Cleveland and held three NFL championships. We know the Raiders came crawling here as well and leveraged it neatly. The flame keeps on burning over remodeling modifications, historical landmark designations and, at last, USC stepping in as caretaker. Over the next 10 years, there will be more improvements that keep it in this top spot.

2. Dodger Stadium: Walter O’Malley’s big dig into the side of a downtown hillside was a genius stroke. It doesn’t look a day over 52, with more upgrades coming. And please give Frank McCourt some credit for going back to the retro-color original seats a few years back. The venue may want to stretch things by hosting soccer, motocross and an outdoor hockey game next month, but it doesn’t have to resort to such gimmickry.

3. Rose Bowl: The Pasadena icon not only is where many traditionally have welcomed the new year since 1923, but it has become more accommodating to four BCS title games (including the final one next month), five Super Bowls and FIFA World Cup title matches for men (’94) and women (’99). Just keep it quiet. The neighbors are getting cranky.

4. Pauley Pavilion: The House That Wooden Built opened for UCLA’s ’65-66 basketball season, was remodeled for the 2012-13 season and should remain a landmark as long as banners keep hanging from the rafters. it also was the perfect place for Mary Lou Retton to show what perfection looked like during the ’84 Olympic gymnastics.

5. The Forum: The place Jack Nicholson referred to as “The Giant Ashtray” in Hollywood Park-adjacent Inglewood was Jack Kent Cooke’s palace for his Lakers and Kings starting in 1967. It’s making a comeback as a concert venue. How about another indoor rodeo someday?

6. Staples Center: The downtown super-sized facility since ’99 changes over from events faster than a five-star restaurant turns over tables. It has seen seven NBA finals, a Stanley Cup passed around and all other kinds of Grammy glitz to add to its crossover appeal.

7. Santa Anita Park: Arcadia’s art deco monument often referred to as the world’s most beautiful race track with the San Gabriel Mountains as the backdrop. No lies. Since its opening on Christmas, 1934, it has survived attempts to close it to expand local retail outlets. Thankfully, it survived and has hosted seven Breeders’ Cups.

8. Grand Olympic Auditorium: When used for boxing, wrestling and weightlifting at the 1932 Olympics, it was the largest indoor arena in the country of its kind with 15,300 seats. Too bad roller derby and pro wrestling events weren’t Olympic disciplines then, too. The place where the 1976 Oscar-winning movie “Rocky” was filmed was sold off to a Korean Christian church. Too late to put up a fight and reclaim it?

9. Riviera Country Club: The Palisades park known as “Hogan’s Alley” has held three major golf events and stands firm as the PGA’s annual L.A. stop.

10. Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena: The first home of the Lakers (’60-’67), Kings (’67) and Clippers (’84-’99) also had USC and UCLA basketball, the ’68 and ’72 NCAA men’s basketball Final Four and showed what major indoor track looked like. Current owners USC may do a tear-down and replace it with a soccer stadium. Go for it.

NUMBERS 11-25:

We’re comfortable slotting Hollywood Park into this tier — coincidentally, among some of the other formidable former L.A. sports landmarks that won’t be forgotten.

Isn’t Hollywood all about pretending? There was a time when Al Davis used to jangle the keys to Hollywood Park’s future, supposedly negotiating a 65,000-seat space with 150 luxury boxes at a price tag of about $200 million about 20 years ago.

It never happened. If it did, maybe we’d decide the race track graciouisly was stepping aside for something bigger and better instead of just bettor-centic. But like all the others on this mini-list, it seems as if all the fantasy talk generated around it possibly being built leaves us feeling as if it’s already come and gone.